Down at the Wire

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The 96-year-old E.W. Scripps Co.-owned Scripps Howard News Service, which provides syndicated news stories to newspapers nationwide, is shutting down, Bloomberg News reported today.

The wire service was done in by the same dwindling circulation and plunging advertising sales that has crippled print editions of the newspaper industry. A transition from Scripps Howard clients to the McClatchy-Tribune Information Services is expected to be completed by January 2014.

The Cincinnati-based news service, whose distinguished alumni include famed World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, will eliminate seven wire-related editorial slots in its Washington, D.C. bureau. Like most media companies nowadays, Scripps is shifting its emphasis to its online and television audience.